Method of adjusting the parallelism of a fiber block with a chip surface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018259727-A1
Application number	US-201815916495-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 9, 2018
Priority date	Mar 10, 2017
Publication date	Sep 13, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of adjusting the parallelism of a surface of a block of optical fibers with a surface of a semiconductor chip or wafer laid on an XY table, including the steps of: a) providing a sensor rigidly attached to the XY table and a handling arm supporting the block, said surface facing the XY table; b) for each of three non-aligned points of the surface of the block, displacing with respect to each other the XY table and the block in the X and/or Y directions to place the sensor opposite the point, and estimating, with the sensor, the distance along the Z direction between the point and the sensor; and c) modifying the orientation of the block by means of the handling arm to provide the desired parallelism.

First claim

1 . A method of adjusting the parallelism of a surface a block of optical fibers with a surface of a semiconductor chip or wafer laid on an XY table, comprising the steps of:
a) providing a sensor rigidly attached to the XY table and a handling arm supporting the block, said surface facing the XY table; b) for each of a set of points of the surface of the block, at least three of which are non-aligned, displacing with respect to each other the XY table and the block in directions X and/or Y to place the sensor opposite the point, and estimate, with the sensor, the distance along the Z direction between the point and the sensor; and c) modifying, by taking into account the distances along the Z direction, the orientation of the block by means of the handling arm to provide the desired parallelism.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor is a contact sensor, step b) comprising, for each point, displacing the block along the Z direction from a reference position to a position where it is placed into contact with the sensor and determining the distance along the Z direction traveled by the block between the reference and contacting positions.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the displacement along the Z direction of the block is ensured by a stepping motor, associated with means for measuring the number of steps.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the sensor comprises an element deformable along the Z direction, a device for measuring the deformation along the Z direction, and a contacting element assembled on the deformable element, step b) comprising, for each point, displacing the block along the Z direction until the element deformable along the Z direction is deformed, and determining the distance along the Z direction traveled by the block between the reference position and a position where the point is placed into contact with the contacting element.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the contacting element is a ball, the element deformable along the Z direction is a flexible blade, and the deformation measurement device is a strain gauge arranged on the blade.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein, at step b), the displacement of the XY table and of the block with respect to each other is performed by displacing the XY table.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each point is arranged in the vicinity of a corner of said surface.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein after each estimation of two distances along the Z direction performed at step b), step c) is partly carried out by modifying the orientation of the block based on the displacement in the X and/or Y direction performed between these two points and on the corresponding difference between distances along the Z direction.

9 . A test station comprising a handling arm and an XY table, capable of implementing the method of claim 1 .

10 . The test station of claim 9 , further comprising a control and processing circuit capable of receiving the output signal of the sensor, of storing the distances along the Z direction, and of supplying control signals to the XY table and to the handling arm to automatically implement the method.

Assignees

• Commissariat Energie Atomique

Inventors

• Grosse Philippe

Classifications

• H10P74/235

  comprising optical enhancement of defects or not-directly-visible states · CPC title

• G01M11/30

  Testing of optical devices, constituted by fibre optics or optical waveguides · CPC title

• G02B6/4226

  Positioning means for moving the elements into alignment, e.g. alignment screws, deformation of the mount · CPC title

• G01B21/16

  for measuring distance of clearance between spaced objects · CPC title

• G02B6/422 Primary

  Active alignment, i.e. moving the elements in response to the detected degree of coupling or position of the elements (G02B6/4233, G02B6/4234 take precedence) · CPC title